3S2 SPECIFIC NAMES. 



kind, as Lobelia- Columnecc, meaninc: Co- 

 lumne(Bformis. We may allow a few such, 

 already established, to remain, but no ju- 

 dicious author will imitate them. 



Botanists occasionally adapt a specific name 

 to some historical fact belonging to the plant 

 or to the person whose name it bears, as Lin^ 

 ■ncca horcalis from the great botanist of the 

 north ; Miurcca eaotica after one of his fa- 

 vourite pupils, a foreigner; BronalUa de* 

 missa and data, from a botanist of humble 

 origin and character, who afterwards became 

 a lofty bishop, and in M'hose work upon wa- 

 ter I find the following quotation from Se- 

 neca in the hand-writing of Linnieus: " Many 

 might attain wisdom, if they did not sup- 

 pose they had already reached it." In like 

 manner Bujfonia teniiifolia is well known to 

 be a satire on the slender botanical pretensions 

 of the great French zoologist, as the Hi Ilia 

 parasitica of Jacquin, though perhaps not 

 meant, is an equally just one upon our pomp- 

 ous Sir John Hill. I mean not to approve of 

 such satires. They stain the purity of our 

 lovely science. If a botanist dot's not de- 

 serve commemoration, let him sink peaceably 



